Hermanson's Orchestral Wonders

Festival is just around the corner – and I don’t have permission slips from everyone yet! You CANNOT go unless I have a form on file from you. Copies of said forms have been posted on a previous entry.

For these last few days, everyone please focus on intonation and articulations – we have the tempos down, so slowing it down will help more than anything else right now. This goes for 7th and 8th graders. You’ve all done wonderful jobs this year, and I can’t wait to hear everyone in the next concert!

A link to Lovinggood’s location can also be found on a previous posting. Please let me know if you need printed directions and I will provide those asap.

7th Grade: No more rehearsals outside of school. Monday is the big day – bring your uniform to school that day!

8th Grade: Make-Up Rehearsals for Violin/Viola players FRIDAY 8am. If you attended the previous rehearsal this week, you do not need to attend (though you are welcome, as always!)

Cello/Bass: Tuesday, 8am. All are encouraged to come to this one!

6th Grade:
Add a comment to this blog naming your favorite songs – preferably ones you can play, but you can thrown in one or two you don’t know. Jamboree information will be coming home shortly – parents, please be on the look-out!

Our dress for Jamboree will be our Orchestra polo or nice white shirt and jeans (no shorts!) Your choice of shoes!

Festival Participants:

Congratulations on a great concert! We got some wonderful feedback, both from our visitors and from yourselves when we watched the performances today. Festival will be a breeze!

PLEASE: Keep your calendar updated with the last few before/after school rehearsals this coming week:

Monday: 7th Grade cellos, 4:30-5:30
Tuesday: 8th Grade Violins/Violas 8am-9am, 7th Grade Violins/Violas 4:30-5:30
Wednesday: 8th Grade Cello/Bass 8am-9am, 7th Grade Full Rehearsal 4:30-5:30
Thursday: 7th Grade Full Rehearsal 4:30-5:30
  

Reminder: All Festival permission slip forms must be in by Monday, 2/25

6th Grade Orchestra:
We are reviewing our progress in the last month and using the metronome to help increase our tempos on older songs. Keep this going up at home!

We have a Quiz over the Sailor Song #107 on Monday.

6th Grade General Music:
We are in the midst of our Star Spangled Banner unit – currently writing a newspaper article from the perspective of Francis Scott Key! Can you make the reader feel like he or she is with you on that boat??

8th Grade General Music:

We should be finishing up with our song on GarageBand early next week and moving on to the video portion of your music video. I’m seeing some great things happening with songs and the video that’s already underway. Great going, everyone!

7th and 8th grade orchestras will be attending the CODA (Cobb Orchestra Director’s Association) Festival the first week in March; 7th Grade on Monday, 3/3 and 8th grade on Thursday, 3/6.

Below, please find the information and permission slip forms for each grade level. Forms need to be turned in by Monday, Feb. 25th to attend. Transportation home from Lovinggood needs to be pre-arranged – we will be finished at 8:20 each evening. Family is encouraged to attend each performance, which begin at 7:40 both nights.

The concert tomorrow night will be a great determination of where we are – and I think we’re pretty far along. Great job to everyone!

Download 7th_grade_festival_info_and_permission.doc

Download 8th_grade_festival_info_and_permission.doc

Check it out! Under "Media"

Attention all Allatoona-districted 8th grade orchestra students:

Mr. Palmer, your future orchestra director, has created a blog for your information. You can access it at http://allatoonaorchestra.edublogs.org/

Also, Mr. Palmer will be at the Allatoona Coffee Talk Monday February 25th at 7:00 PM at Harrison High School
Dining hall.  Allatoona is going to introduce the Fine Arts Department, and he will share his vision for the department and the orchestra. Small group discussion time for questions will be provided.

Harrison’s website can be found at http://www.harrisonorchestra.org/

Information about the Kennesaw Mountian Orchestra can be found at http://www.kmhsfinearts.org/Orchestra.htm

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend and are practicing every day like I know you will!

Pre-Festival Concert – 7th and 8th Grade Orchestras

Date: Thursday, February 21st, 7:00 pm, McClure Auditorium

Reporting Times: 7th Grade: 6pm
                           8th Grade: 6:30pm
                          -Be ready to PLAY at this time. You may show up 10 minutes before your time to                                     get ready.

Purpose: To give us a chance to play our Festival programs in front of an audience and
               receive comments from invited judges to help improve our performance at CODA in a few                        short days.

Dress: 7th Grade: Orchestra Shirt or White Polo/nice blouse, Black Pants/skirt (below
          knees only), black socks/hose/shoes
          8th Grade: All black. Any skirts must come below knees.

Students must participate in this concert in order to come to Festival

Important Dates

7th Grade:
Cello Sectional Monday 2/25, 4:30-5:30 Violin/Viola Sectional Tuesday 2/26 4:30-5:30
Full Rehearsal Wednesday 2/27 4:30-5:30
CODA Festival (Lovinggood MS) Monday 3/3 Performance: 7:40

8th Grade:
Violin/Viola Sectional: Tuesday 2/26 8am
Cello/Bass Sectional: Wednesday 2/27 8am
NEW!!! Full rehearsal: Wednesday 3/5 8am         
CODA Festival (Lovinggood MS) Thursday 3/6 Performance: 7:40

The previous information was sent home with all 7th and 8th grade Orchestra students.
6th grade students, we have Jamboree instead of Festival – Jamboree will be held March 27th at Harrison HS. More information will be coming home early next month.

This 9 weeks is flying by! Several things coming up:

Super Holiday Tours is requiring medical and permission forms from all participants in the trip, including chaperones. If you have not gotten a form or have lost the one I gave you, please let me know ASAP. Medical history forms must be notarized to be accepted from medical personal – McClure has two notaries in the front office if you need this service performed.

Final payments are due tomorrow, February 15th. If you need to know your current balance, please e-mail me.

Reminder:  Mandatory Disney Parent’s Meeting Monday, March 24, 7pm in the Theater.

This will be an awesome trip. I can’t wait, and I’m sure you feel the same way!

A fantastic resource!

The Georgia Youth Symphony has an entire page dedicated to videos of great pieces and wonderful performers – from "Short Ride in a Fast machine" to Stravinsky conducting Stravinsky ("Firebird Suite" – which the CSO is playing on Feb 23 and 24th) to "Adagio for Strings" to Dvorák’s "New World Symphony" – these are pieces you should know anyway, so why not watch great performances?

Enjoy!!

Congratulations on all GYSO members for several wonderful concerts this afternoon!

Festival is quickly approaching! Our Pre-Festival concert is a mere 8 class days away! I look forward to seeing everyone  at the concert Thursday, Feb 21st at 7pm and again at CODA Festival at Lovinggood MS on March 3 (7th grade) and March 6 (8th grade).

Parents: I will need several chaperones for each trip. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending this will us! We will leave from McClure at some point after the end of the school day. Schedules will be finalized this week.

There are several things in the works to help us this year grow to the best we can be:

Sectionals:

8th Grade is always BEFORE school from 8:00-9:00.
    Violins: Tuesday, Feb 5 (tomorrow!),
                    Tuesday, Feb. 12
                    Tuesday, Feb. 26

    Violas: Thursday, Feb. 7
                    Tuesday, Feb. 26

    Cello/Bass: Friday, Feb. 8 (I won’t see you in class to remind you about this one!)
                            Wed. Feb 27

7th Grade is always AFTER school from 4:30-5:30
Violins: Tuesday, Feb. 12
                Wed. Feb 20 (everyone)
                Wed. Feb 26
                Thursday, Feb 27 (everyone)

Violas: Wednesday Feb. 13 (I won’t see you in class to remind you about this one!)
            Wed. Feb. 20 (everyone)
           Wed. Feb 26
             Thursday, Feb 27 (everyone)

Cellos: Thursday, Feb. 14th
            Wednesday, Feb. 20 (everyone)
           Monday, Feb 25
            Thursday, Feb 27 (everyone)

All 7th graders have been given very specific guidelines for practicing
these next couple of weeks. This log is due Wed. Feb 20th.

Happy practicing!